Playing in the unknown
Painting as metaphor for life
It could require months of emptiness and fear between finishing one painting and starting the next, before I understood what I was already doing and started to do it on purpose. The wonderful thing about painting on canvas is that it’s almost impossible to fuck it up. Happy mistakes abound when unhappy ones are easily painted over, becoming just another layer in the many layers that co-create a finished piece.
I am terrible at remembering to document my process but this time, by happy accident, I happen to have pictures of the three main incarnations of this glorian. The name, Glorians, is from the book - The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams - that I was listening to while I was painting, over the days and final days that it came together.
The first iteration came in October 2025 after I visited the cave where Mary Magdalene is said to have lived out the final years of her life, after her exile from Jerusalem, amongst a community of Druids who protected and communed with her, on Mount La Sainte Baume, in Provence, France. Legend and a statue behind the alter in her chapel inside the cave depicting her flight, tells us that she was levitated every evening, carried into heaven by a flourish of ecstasy and angels. I loved this woody pastel, aquarelle graphite and vinyl paint painting so much, it took me months to realise that she was asking to be more. And to be less literal.
Then came this next iteration, all dragons and year of the fire horse, driven by the fantasy romance The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.
Still not feeling it, I went back in. As always, with no agenda other than to allow my body to be the conduit. And here she is, a glorian - the scene of a multitude of simple, magnificent and epic miracles.
If you would like to know more about this or any of my other paintings, or my work as a psychic and Internal Family Systems informed coach, you can reach me at liaif.com
i love knowing this...that you can't fuck up a painting. i haven't tried to paint since i was in the 6th grade. i hope to get the opportunity some day. for now i am happy to be exploring collage. i love your process, caitlin and how there were 3 different iterations of this beautiful glorian and how you let your body lead you. i like the image in my head of mary magdalene levitating every evening as well. thanks for that!